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Anybody that has been baking up American recipes for a while knows that we use vanilla extract a lot! Let's face it, vanilla extract shows up in almost every baking recipe ever written.
Here in Spain, though, vanilla use isn't as commonplace. I have never actually even seen pure vanilla extract for sale in the stores. You can find vanilla beans themselves, or you can find artificial vanilla flavoring.
While I do love vanilla beans, they aren't always the most convenient thing to use for most recipes.
As for the vanilla flavoring? Those of you that have been following me for awhile now probably know quite well that I'm not a big fan of chemically produced artificial products.
Even “naturally” flavoured vanilla products might not actually be using vanilla!
That statement sounds crazy, but it's all too true!!
Natural vanilla flavor can actually come from beavers in the form of castoreum. Castoreum is a secretion from the castor sacs of beavers. Because of the location of the castor sacs, at the base of the beaver's tail, castoreum may also contain urine and anal gland secretions! Yum!
So, if you are a vegetarian or vegan, and are eating something with “natural vanilla flavoring”, you may unwittingly be consuming an animal product, and a gross one at that!
To avoid all that grossness, the first years I was living here, I brought bulk amounts of vanilla extract back to Spain with me each time I went back to visit the US. Once we got an internet connection at home, though, I learned quite quickly how easy it was to make homemade pure vanilla extract.
If you try to make it with vanilla beans that you buy at the supermarket, instead of saving money, you'll likely pay a pretty hefty cost for homemade pure vanilla extract. On the other hand, if you buy vanilla beans online in bulk, you can end up saving yourself quite a bit of money by making your own!
What's even cooler is that you can customize your vanilla extract by choosing different alcohol bases for your vanilla infusion.
The most common choice seems to be vodka. That's the type of vanilla extract that I started to make years ago.
With time, I started seeing recipes for bourbon vanilla extract that was actually made with bourbon whisky. Commercial bourbon vanilla extract isn't really usually made made with bourbon whisky, though, but is instead named after the variety of vanilla used, the so called bourbon vanilla. Perhaps it was the name that got people to try using bourbon in their extracts, but after hearing how good it was, of course I had to give it a try too. I have to say that I understand why so many people love it!
Even more recently I was reading that rum provided a much smoother vanilla extract than vodka, and that vodka was really just typically used because of the price. I don't know if that's true, and I haven't personally tried using rum yet, but it is on my “to do list”. If any of you make or have made vanilla extract with rum, I'd love to hear your comments. I'd love to hear your comments anyway, though, of course. 😉
So, here's the recipe…
Homemade Pure Vanilla Extract
Ingredients
- 1 liter alcohol of choice (Vodka,bourbon, rum) 35% or higher
- 100-200 g vanilla beans I used "extract grade" to save money.
Instructions
- Cut your vanilla beans lengthwise to expose the inner seeds, and place into a glass container of your choosing. To be considered a pure vanilla extract, the alcohol used should be 35% alcohol or higher, and you need to use a minimum of 100g of vanilla beans per liter of alcohol. 200g of vanilla beans per liter will make a double strength vanilla extract.
- Add the alcohol to the bottle and shake.
- Store out of the sunlight, and shake the contents occasionally. Your vanilla extract will progressively darken and take on a stronger vanilla flavour. It will be "ready" for giving as gifts in about a month.
- As you use the extract, you can top it up with a little more alcohol. I like to occasionally add in a fresh vanilla bean or two, but it will last you for years even without.
Homemade vanilla extract is perfect for holiday gift giving because it is so much more inexpensive to make it in bulk. Even though it doesn't go bad, not everyone wants to have litres of vanilla extract on hand and filling up their cupboards. So, the perfect option is giving away part of your stash to your favorite vanilla loving friend.
With gift giving, presentation is key, of course. So choose a pretty bottle and make yourself up some pretty labels. Feel free to print out and use mine, if you like! I printed these out on a 4 in. by 6 in. photo paper sheet to get the size of the labels in my picture.
So, with that, I'll add this to the series of posts on DIY Christmas gifts. It's about the time of year that you should get started unless you want to make something very last minute. Vanilla extract isn't one of those gifts, though!
I hope you enjoy it!
Emily, thank you for the recipe. I, too, am living in Spain and have had a hard time finding vanilla extract. Do you have to sterilize the bottles before you use them? Thanks!
Hi Karen,
While it’s always a good idea to sterilize bottles before using them, it’s not really 100% necessary. You’re using a high concentration of alcohol, so you should be OK as long as you make sure they are clean and you can take other precautions to help ensure your safety.
I usually just make sure the bottles are clean and then run them through the dishwasher whose heat basically kills anything undesirable. You can also run really hot water in them.
Lately, even the vanilla beans are quite expensive. There were problems with vanilla production a few years back, and I’ve heard the prices should be dropping again soon! I hope so because I’d love to make more soon. 😉
Hi Tracy,
Just recently moved to Valencia and am searching for a vanilla bean source. Any suggestions for that? Thank you
Sandra Irick
Hi Sandra,
I ordered online, but it was several years ago before the prices of vanilla beans skyrocketed!
I can’t remember where I bought them from. Luckily, I bought a lot (probably to save on shipping) and made several large bottles that I’m still using. I have been wanting to buy more soon too, though. I’ve been hearing that in the next year or so, that the vanilla crop may start catching back up to the demand again and that prices may start coming down again! (Fingers crossed)
Hi Tracy
I was able to find vanilla beans at the Mercado Central, although they are expensive. We have a batch going now. Now, the next issue, where do I find bottles? Have looked around Amazon and in some local shops. Suggestions?
Thank you
Sandra I
Hi Sandra,
I’ve heard that this year the vanilla production is starting to get better again. (The prices have soared over the last couple of years as demand has gone up and the fact that there was a problem with the crops. I guess it takes several years to get the plants where they need to form the pods.)
Anyway, here’s to hoping that the prices go back down soon!
I’ve actually bought in local shops mostly, but I love the larger bottles from IKEA. They may have smaller ones too. Their price/quality is great for the bottles. They’re my favorite for making kombucha and building up the gas. I have more expensive ones that don’t seem to seal as well.
Thank you for your post…. I will be trying your non-alcohol version! Is there a big difference in flavor without the alcohol? Thanks for you time…. Have a blessed day!
Hi Randy,
I’ve been meaning to write up a post about that. 🙂
I have a batch in glycerin that has been going for months. The flavor itself is almost identical- well, the vanilla part, of course. The difference is that this version isn’t sweet at all and tastes like alcohol, and the other version is sweeter and maybe not quite as strong. Overall in a recipe I doubt you’d notice much of a difference. You could add a little more of the glycerin version, and maybe cut down the sugar in the recipe by the tiniest bit. (That said, you probably wouldn’t notice the difference either way in a normal recipe, so it’s probably not necessary to make any changes.)
I am interested to check whether you could make or give a site that would make vanilla without liquor as a few people are sensitive to it yet at the same time need to make it. The one I purchase is made with glycerice, water, sugar and vanilla extractive. Most likely from some beaver… .
Hello!
I’ve actually been working on a post about it after receiving another similar comment.
It’s actually quite simple to do using vegetable glycerine and a little water, just like the one you buy. You follow the same process that I’ve shown here with the alcohol, but instead use a mixture of glycerine and water. I’ve been experimenting a bit with ratios, but it doesn’t seem to make a huge difference. I like around 75% glycerine with 25% water so far.
The glycerine works as a preservative for the vanilla, and it’s actually a little bit sweet on its own, so the resulting “extract” is slightly sweet.
I hope that helps!
I am curious to see if you could make or give a website that would make vanilla without alcohol as some people are allergic to it but still want to make it. The one I buy is made with glycerice, water, sugar and vanilla extractive. Probably from some beaver….
Hi Audrey,
That’s a very good idea, and something I hadn’t really considered. Most people here directly use the seeds of the vanilla pods themselves, or you can also infuse them into sugar to make a vanilla sugar that can be used in sweet recipes. The alcohol is really just to preserve and make something quick and easy to use. I’ve made vanilla sugar several times before and it works very well for adding some vanilla flavor without adding alcohol. (I’d be happy to do a post on it if it interests you.)
I used alcohol in my natural food colorings for the very same reason- to make sure bacteria doesn’t grow and they can be shelf stable for a long time.
I can look into the idea of using glycerine, though. I have a lot of it as I use it in soap making. I’m just not sure about the preserving qualities, if any, that it has. You have definitely piqued my interest, and I’ll try to investigate a little and see what I can come up with. 🙂
If it works out well, it would be a great starting point for elaborating natural food coloring without alcohol too.
For now, I either have to use powdered or the alcohol extract version.
Well, after a bit of research, it turns out that vegetable glycerin works wonderfully well for preserving fresh flavors and for making “glycerites,” which is basically the non-alcoholic version of an extract. So, as we speak, I am now making a test batch of non-alcoholic vanilla extract using glycerine. It is already taking up the color and flavor of vanilla, so it looks very promising. 🙂
Where do you get those cute bottles?
Hi Annette,
I’m actually very lucky in that I can find these bottles pretty inexpensively in the Spanish version of the dollar store here in my town. I’m not lucky enough to get them for a dollar, but they do only cost me a couple of Euros, and I think that’s a pretty good deal. I looked the bottles up on Amazon for someone else who was looking for them, but they were a bit more expensive there.
These were the bottle I found through Amazon (affiliate link) : http://amzn.to/1ENleVe
With as much as I’d love for you to buy something through my link, I’d rather be honest with you and say that I bought mine locally for cheaper. It is an option, though, if you really love them and can’t find them anywhere else.
I looked for cheaper alternatives through Amazon, and couldn’t find any, but they did show other Amazon shops that have them listed as cheaper, but with a higher S&H. Perhaps if you were going to buy several of them, it works out to be more inexpensive that way? I’m not sure.
Love this! I really need to make my own. Beautiful photos. Pinned it.